Prefer ArrayList for Collection when source is an array

Closes gh-28048

spring-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/core/convert/support/ArrayToCollectionConverter.java

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2014 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2023 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 package org.springframework.core.convert.support;
 
 import java.lang.reflect.Array;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Set;
@@ -69,7 +70,7 @@ final class ArrayToCollectionConverter implements ConditionalGenericConverter {
 
 		int length = Array.getLength(source);
 		TypeDescriptor elementDesc = targetType.getElementTypeDescriptor();
-		Collection<Object> target = CollectionFactory.createCollection(targetType.getType(),
+		Collection<Object> target = createCollection(targetType.getType(),
 				(elementDesc != null ? elementDesc.getType() : null), length);
 
 		if (elementDesc == null) {
@@ -89,4 +90,13 @@ final class ArrayToCollectionConverter implements ConditionalGenericConverter {
 		return target;
 	}
 
+	private Collection<Object> createCollection(Class<?> targetType, @Nullable Class<?> elementType, int length) {
+		if (targetType.isInterface() && targetType.isAssignableFrom(ArrayList.class)) {
+			// Source is an array -> prefer ArrayList for Collection and SequencedCollection.
+			// CollectionFactory.createCollection traditionally prefers LinkedHashSet instead.
+			return new ArrayList<>(length);
+		}
+		return CollectionFactory.createCollection(targetType, elementType, length);
+	}
+
 }

spring-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/core/convert/converter/DefaultConversionServiceTests.java

@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ class DefaultConversionServiceTests {
 	@Test
 	void convertArrayToCollectionInterface() {
 		Collection<?> result = conversionService.convert(new String[] {"1", "2", "3"}, Collection.class);
-		assertThat(result).isEqualTo(Set.of("1", "2", "3"));
+		assertThat(result).isEqualTo(List.of("1", "2", "3"));
 	}
 
 	@Test